About Me

Known principally for his weekly political columns and his commentaries on radio and television, Chris Trotter has spent most of his adult life either engaging in or writing about politics. He was the founding editor of The New Zealand Political Review (1992-2005) and in 2007 authored No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand. Living in Auckland with his wife and daughter, Chris describes himself as an “Old New Zealander” – i.e. someone who remembers what the country was like before Rogernomics. He has created this blog as an archive for his published work and an outlet for his more elegiac musings. It takes its name from Bowalley Road, which runs past the North Otago farm where he spent the first nine years of his life. Enjoy.

Bowalley Road Rules

The blogosphere tends to be a very noisy, and all-too-often a very abusive, place. I intend Bowalley Road to be a much quieter, and certainly a more respectful, place.So, if you wish your comments to survive the moderation process, you will have to follow the Bowalley Road Rules.These are based on two very simple principles:Courtesy and Respect.Comments which are defamatory, vituperative, snide or hurtful will be removed, and the commentators responsible permanently banned.Anonymous comments will not be published. Real names are preferred. If this is not possible, however, commentators are asked to use a consistent pseudonym.Comments which are thoughtful, witty, creative and stimulating will be most welcome, becoming a permanent part of the Bowalley Road discourse.However, I do add this warning. If the blog seems in danger of being over-run by the usual far-Right suspects, I reserve the right to simply disable the Comments function, and will keep it that way until the perpetrators find somewhere more appropriate to vent their collective spleen.

Followers

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Have The Greens Entered Their Jacobin Phase?

A Green Robespierre? As the following posting was being sent to The Daily Blog, the Greens female co-leader, Metiria Turei, was announcing her resignation from both her position in the party and Parliament. The logic of uncompromising revolutionary virtue is inherently hostile to the notion of politics as the art of the possible - and to liberty itself.

THE JACOBINS, along with “Madame Guillotine” and
Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, will forever be associated with political
extremism. So, the mere suggestion that our very own Green Party might be
entering its Jacobin Phase is unlikely to be well received – especially by the
Greens!

The historical lessons of Jacobinism should not, however, be
dismissed unheard. The rise and fall of the Jacobins is instructive to all
pursuers of progressive change, precisely because it reveals the calamitous
consequences of elevating revolutionary virtue above all other considerations.

The tragic irony of the Jacobins is that, in the beginning,
they were the new French Constitution’s most avid defenders – most particularly
of its Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It is only as the
French Revolution unfolded: each succeeding chapter bloodier and more
terrifying than the last; that the Jacobins, its most eloquent, energetic and
effective defenders, found themselves propelled relentlessly towards
increasingly extreme measures. Believing themselves to be the only reliable
champions of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, they found it easier and easier
to brand all those who opposed them as counter-revolutionary agents of the ancien régime.

Initially, the eloquence of the Jacobin deputies [MPs] and
the venom of their journalistic allies, was reserved for members of the more
moderate factions within the National Assembly. But, as the French people’s
enemies, both internal and external, multiplied, the Jacobins’ political
paranoia worsened. The number of executions rose sharply, causing even the
Jacobins’ own followers’ misgivings to grow. Undeterred, their leader, Maximillian
Robespierre, intensified the Reign of Terror. The man the people of Paris
called “The Incorruptible”, sent former friends and comrades to the guillotine
with the same cold resolve with which he dispatched members of the despised
aristocracy.

To quote his own, memorable, advice to the
Jacobin-controlled Committee of Public Safety: “the first maxim of your policy
ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people’s enemies by terror.”

As the realisation eventually dawned on what remained of France’s
revolutionary leadership that if Robespierre was not stopped they would all be
killed, the National Assembly was galvanised into action. Robespierre, himself,
was declared an “enemy of the people” and laid open to Madame Guillotine’s
sibilant kiss.

Thus does History instruct us. That any political movement
which abandons the reasonable pursuit of achievable objectives and embraces
instead a regime dedicated to the imposition and enforcement of a universal and
uncompromising “republic of virtue”, may begin by executing its enemies, but it
will end by making enemies of, and executing, its friends. Freedom can never be
secured by coercion. Every revolutionary movement which tried has ended up
devouring itself.

If the Greens have indeed entered their Jacobin phase, it is
likely to be their last.

This essay was
originally posted on The Daily Blog
of Wednesday, 9 August 2017.

I find it all very disheartening. It's a tragic mess. A cluster you-know-what mixing dirty politics, absence of backbone, a ruthless commentariat, messy human lives that don't quite fit the ideal image of the 'deserving poor', Victorian moral reasoning, and a party that is an unusually broad church and choses the wrong moment to air its theological differences. I still wish they had held strong, united and stared down the haters - at least for a week or so until the media moved on. To my mind raising benefits 20%, giving the in-work tax credit to beneficiary kids and allowing sole parents to earn $200 before their benefit is abated is in the realm of the achieveable - hardly revolutionary. Gutted.

Bert, I think Jordan Peterson is well worth watching (yes I know GS has put him in the alt-Right basket). Im not sure the Greens are ideologically possessed per se, we might more accurately say that we all are to some degree.

If there is value in watching Peterson it is that he explains ideology very much from a practicing clinical psychologists perspective, not from that of an academic postmodernist, or a neo Marxist or a libertarian viewpoint. One of the themes Peterson projects is that humans have evolved to perceive visual patterns very quickly, and that has evolved into pattern recognition elsewhere. We also live in a world where we develop behavioral boundaries that going beyond which challenges our comfort zones. I would posit that Turei's admissions were outside of comfort zones and therefore perceived as a danger, and that they had a pattern that was confirmation of that.

Jacobin phase Chris, lets hope not. We need the Greens to provide a space for idealistic counterpoise to the ideologically pure of the Right such as Treasury economists and ACT.

In terms of the revolution eating its own the Jacobin experience is echoed by the Soviet experiment with Stalinism. I was watching the Hand Maidens Tale on TV, the whole thing was very scary as you draw so many parallels, such as Iranian theocracy, or Soviet Stalinism. The ideologically pure wont allow any questioning of their vision of heaven on earth, a very dangerous position. Solzhenitsyn wrote about this, if you pointed out that the Soviet system was demonstrably wrong you were automatically out of line, questioning not allowed.

Are the Greens at this stage? I think not. Is it in their DNA? Yes very definitely.

If she had engaged her brain last Friday when the possibilty of being in cabinet was over and resigned as co leader the ensuring load of crap that has befallen on the beloved Green Party would not have happenned .What remains of the Jacobites is is a train in Scotland better known as the Harry Potter Express.

Although by no means a fan of historical determinism I can't help but the see the parallels between the rise (then fall) of the radical Jacobins in the Green party's recent history.

However, it's important to note that with the fall of Robespierre came the Thermidorian reaction. So if we're going to continue with the analogy maybe the next phase is a move back away from radicalism and back towards a more pragmatic position

The Greens' recent travails have actually reminded me less of the French Revolution than of its Napoleonic sequel.

When Napoleon organised the abduction and execution of the Bourbon Duke of Enghien, the newly-crowned emperor's foreign minister, Talleyrand, famously said to him:

"Sire, what you have committed is worse than a crime. It's a mistake!"

That was my instantaneous judgement of Metiria's tactics, when announcing what I otherwise thought was an excellent raft of benefit policies. And, using the same test of practicality, I then changed my mind, however briefly, when the polls started showing a perceptible rise in Green support.

But, since then, mistake has followed mistake, as new allegations have come to hand and as the Greens have withdrawn into a silo of self-righteousness, which, in recent days, has morphed into rank intolerance of dissent.

I'm tempted to cite another adage from a slightly earlier revolution, to the effect of: "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately".

Yet the fact is that New Zealand politics needs an effective Green party. And it also needs a party with the Greens' attenuated sense of social justice.

So I hope for their recovery from this self-administered wound, though I doubt whether I'll be voting for them this time around.

I am gobsmacked to read all the male mother superiors sit in judgment on Metiria and her little diddling to enable her to progress. She was getting what she should have been getting without any need for special pleading. It is the system that keeps NZs down. Paula Bennett has cut out training incentives altogether hasn't she. People engaged in an education community learning something, why we can't pay for that. Car sleepers and retail workers don't need to know much beyond the three R's.

It 's like a whole country of constipated creaking old bodies and brains and younger people precociously aged, who have such little understanding of real life and don't want to know. They just sit mulling over the same little crossword day after day trying to make sense of the clues, their attention on the minute and trivial.

Not sure what you're saying, temporally. Just know 'the art of the possible' has rendered the Maori Party rank. And bowing the head to the possible wasn't the 1935 democratic revolution's origin. In the Catholic slums of Lancashire, because of Papal Bulls against Socialism, they emptied chamber pots on my g.grandfather's (admittedly egomaniacal) head. There was no immediate reward in that. But the old bugger was right, and more, which you seem to approve of most, practically right. The art of the possible silences voices, what else do the silenced have but voices? Voices are revolution.

No doubt many think my repeated warnings over the years that the Gs are a poisonous bunch of extremists that Labour should have as their first priority to diminish and destroy is just another odd view from some old Tory.I have even said that they are the sort of people who would end democracy if they ever got power. I had not thought of them executing people but of course they would.Well I'm glad at last you agree with me Chris and I think your Jacobite parallel is much better than my comparisons with the Nazis as the latter held together for a long time.Now Labour need to dump the 'understanding' and surge to the finish rope. Just tell the Gs it was a misunderstanding and cannot possibly be in existence now the Gs have blown up.Go Labour! Eat their lunch and do a deal with damn Peters. Make him Deputy and the government will be yours for .... oh at least a year.I think it is time for a change though. But not one with the veneer thin Gs in it.There needs now to be a new centre environmental party started which will solely be about the planet, leaving ideology to the main parties, but replacing NZF as king maker.. Perhaps call them the Blues, as the Green brand is dead, not just in NZ but all over the world. It was never green, but red.

Well said Grey. In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy a spaceship lands at Lord's during a cricket match. Nobody can see it because it does not comprehend. It is an SEP (somebody else problem). I walk down Lambton quay and see beggars as do the political class of Wellington. They are an SEP.

Jesus wept Charles, what a load of over the top drama queening. "Likely to end democracy".Just look at their backgrounds – nary a revolutionary among them these days let alone a genuine member of the working class. They're all dressed in suits, and if any of them do smoke pot they do it very discreetly. Plus Metiria's peccadilloes, minor though they may be in comparison to yours, did to some extent split the party. And he's you crying "we shall all be murdered in our beds" – it's like a Goon show script. FFS words (almost) fail me.

GS it would be good occasionally if words did fail you and Jesus had dry eyes for at least a week.Are you not familiar with Traison des Clerk (sp?). It's the bastards in suits you have to worry about not the workers you fool. Give me a dope smoker any day. Indeed I'm one. Have you not read Tolkien or Orwell?It's the ordinary folk who are solid and save the day not the educated or more precisely pseudo-educated. Look at what happened in Germany twice which was the most educated (and green nature worshipers actually) country on the planet.

GSCharles is just taking the piss. Don't let him get under your skin. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be Chris making a foil to enhance his arguments. He makes a good point though that the Greens original core issue is across the spectrum of politics and does not in itself align with any left/right issues. A purely environmental movement may be more necessary. And it may do all right too.Cheers D J S

Victor I like pendants. Thanks for the correction. I’m in Catholic Italy so that must be it. Although even then I should have said Jacobitism, to be precisely wrong.

Three terms is enough for anyone, and if Labour could get high in the 30s then it would be good for us to have a change, as long as WinFirst did not have too much power and no other party was essential for a majority gov.

It is important for our democracy, I think, that we have two strong parties, which usually have to take on one or at a push two smaller ones to govern. Boring perhaps but government should not be exciting, and turbulent lest it frightens the horses. Look at the current mess of the opposition four. Fun for us but not great for Zild I reckon. Don't want to be governed like Italy! It may suit them but were are very much not Italians, much as I am fond of them.

By 'enough' I mean for the good of all including my National. Naturally I hope they would be back in 3 years and I’ll still probably vote Bill.Having said that, my 21 year old son and his nerdy mates are voting Act and he dragged me along to meet Seymour. Impressive guy. He might get enough votes to have a party of two! There were a load of students there. Tempted to vote for him. He seems a true liberal in the old sense. Arco rather than neo.

N AUCKLAN D'S LONG Bay Park, Paul Spoonley notices a large man aggressively confronting a park ranger. As we drive past, the man picks up and throws the ranger’s bike. “Just stop over here,” says Spoonley. He opens his door and half gets out of the car. The man sees Spoonley looking and approaches him, yelling as he walks: “You alright mate? You all good? You all good buddy?” “You OK?” asks Spoonley calmly. “Yeah. He just won’t f***ing leave me alone, eh?” The man notices me: “You all good?” he says, crouching down, peering through the window. “Yes,” I say.“Yeah, well he won’t leave me alone. This is my car here. He won’t leave me alone. I’m telling him to leave me alone.” Things are tense, uncomfortable, possibly dangerous. “Okay,” Spoonley says, closing his door gently, “let’s get out of here.” The man bangs on the window three or four times: “You all good?” he yells again. “You all good?” A little further up the road, Spoonley asks me to stop so he can tell the other park rangers about the man. “Sorry about doing that to you,” he says later. “I worked in a freezingworks for five years and I was a slaughterman. I worked in a gang of seven, and five of them were Mongrel Mob members. I am very much a middle—class Pakeha but those sorts of guys, I spent a lot of my younger life with. “We cannot afford to socially and economically exclude these communities,” he says. “That sort of public anger, the ‘What are you looking at?’ sort of thing. There are social costs to exclusion.” https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/our-new-society/